Hybrid Solar Energy Systems: Cutting-Edge Technologies and Applications for the Built Environment

The integration of hybrid solar energy systems, particularly photovoltaic (PV), solar thermal (ST), and hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) collectors, has significantly advanced in recent years, enhancing their applicability in various contexts, including natural and built heritage. This evolution emphasizes custom design to ensure compatibility with aesthetic, material, and energy integration criteria. This chapter reviews the latest advancements in PV, ST, and PVT systems, focusing on innovative materials. PV technologies have seen substantial improvements, including colored, anti-reflective, printed, and thin film technologies, enhancing their visual appeal and integration potential. Fourth-generation PV cells, such as tandem solar cells, offer high efficiency through the combination of multiple absorbers with different bandgap properties, although challenges such as high fabrication costs and material degradation persist. ST have not a significant innovation, while hybrid configurations achieve higher overall efficiency and reliability in harnessing solar energy. Future developments in active solar systems must address challenges such as the useful life and disposal of panels, leveraging capacities in industries like glass, aluminum, silicon, and semiconductors for sustainable waste management and recycling. After a discussion of innovative developments, the chapter presents visibility mapping techniques and integration criteria based on aesthetic, technological, and energy principles. These criteria include visual and material compatibility, minimal intervention, reversibility, durability, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Continued advancements in solar active technologies, alongside innovative design and integration approaches, will further enhance their performance, durability, and applicability in diverse environments.